1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refillable melody candle, and more particularly, to a refillable melody candle in which a seated plate having a sensor and a melody chip built therein is coupled to the bottom of a body of the candle in such a manner as to be removably coupled to a separate base having a power supply section and a driving controller built therein.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, a melody candle includes a body 10 formed into a solid state by solidifying a combustible material, and a wick 11 interposed in the center of the body and made in such a manner that natural fibers or chemical fibers are processed in the form of threads or fabrics and then twisted in the form of spiral knitting yarn.
An optical transmission member 13 for transmitting light of a flame 12 generated during the combustion of the wick is interposed inside of the wick 11. The optical transmission member 12 is configured with an optical fiber used as a transmission line for optical communication.
The melody candle also includes a base portion 20 having a seated plate 20a formed at the top thereof for seating and fixing the bottom portion of the body 10, a volume adjust button 21 mounted at one side thereof for gradually adjusting volume level of the melody candle, and a battery container formed at a predetermined position therein for receiving batteries 22.
A printed circuit board (PCB) 24, which has a melody storage chip 26 for storing various melodies classified by genre, an optical sensor 25 as on/off means for playing back sounds stored in the melody storage chip 26, etc., mounted thereon, is installed within the base portion 20. At this time, the optical sensor 25 is positioned to be oriented vertically toward the lower end portion of the optical transmission member 13 interposed inside of the wick so as to receive light emitted from the optical transmission member.
A flame intercepting member 14 made of a metal material is disposed at the lower portion of the wick 11 so as to prevent the wick from being burnt.
When the tip of the wick 11 of the melody candle A constructed as above catches fire, it becomes ignited while generating flame. At this time, light emitted by the flame is downwardly transmitted to the optical sensor 25 positioned vertically via the optical transmission member 13 interposed inside of the wick such that the optical sensor 25 may receive the light.
Thereafter, the light sensor detects the received light and supplies power from batteries to the melody storage chip 26. Then, the melody storage chip outputs various melody sounds stored therein so as to play back them through a loudspeaker 23.
However, for the above conventional melody candle, there has been a problem in that since the body of the candle and the base portion for generating melodies are integrally formed with each other, it is difficult for general users to replace a burnt-out candle used with a new one.
To this end, there has been developed a technology which enables replacement of a candle used with a new one. As shown in FIG. 2, two different twisted metal wires are jointed together such as thermocouple so as to sense flame of a candle. Electromotive force effect generated between the two metal conductors when heat is applied to the junctions of the metal wires, is used as Seeback effect. The conductors are configured in such a manner as to be thin enough to be burnt by flame of the candle, and hence can be burnt together with the candle wick 6. In order to transmit electromotive force generated from the candle wick 6 during the burning of the candle to the a sound playback device, a metal wire 1 and a metal wire 2 used as conductors in FIG. 2 is soldered to a circuit board 3 having two concentric circular electrodes 4 and 5, respectively. This structure is made in such a manner that the two electrodes 4 and 5 mounted on the bottom surface of the candle are in contact with the sound playback device disposed within a separate support.
However, since such a conventional technology employs Seeback back, each of the metal wires is not molten well during the heating of it, such that it may be exposed to the outside of the candle. In addition, long term use of the metal wires contributes to soot production, which in turn deteriorates quality of the candle. Further, since this prior art is only a method in which a burnt-out candle is replaced with a new one, a melodies stored in the sound playback device are always outputted in a uniform pattern, which may allow a user to feel a repugnance to the candle in use during a for long time.